Development of Personal Relationships
Lecture 1
Why study personal relationships?
Social health is as important as mental and physical health.
Loneliness = perceived lack of relationships, quality of relationships is crucial as well
Studies show that social relationships are more important in predicting mortality than e.g. smoking,
alcohol consumption.
Early Social Relationships
Classical theories
Infants (0-2 years) are not capable of true social interaction, later relationships are derived from
relationships with primary caregivers.
Peers start to matter later in development
Modern theories
Children are biologically wired to pay attention to others besides primary caregivers
The entire social system influences a child
Early peer relations can be important for development as well
Scrambled faces paradigm
Study on newborns do infants pay more attention to a human face?
More head turning when a face is shown on the board
replication is dependent on the age; younger infants (1-3 months) show more head turning than
older infants (5 months).
This may be because younger infants need this skills (being able to recognize a human face) for early
survival.
Dyadic Peer-Relationships
Contingent responses: responses that build on what the other person did (higher degree when there
are no toys that distract infants)
starts already at 6 months
Dyad differences in touching each other or toys held by their peers
Prosocial exchanges
Responses to distress
Newborns cry in response to other cries
Study on 8 months old infants (Liddle, Bradley & McGarth)
What happens when one infants starts to cry?
1. Gaze
2. Affect: facial expression
3. Physical response
4. Self-distress
Study on 2 year old infants
Asked was what one would do when someone starts crying
Responses: problem-solving, aggression, amusement
individual differences start to form
, Development of Personal Relationships
Sharing
12 M.O.: affiliative sharing a toy is brought to another person for the purpose of playing
with together, not necessarily for sharing the individual still benefits from the toy
18 M.O.: share when it is requested
From 24 M.O.: children share spontaneously, without being asked to share
sharing is predicted by sensitivity to distress
But non-sharing is very frequent as well
At 48 M.O. sharing increases further and is related to Theory of Mind
Cooperating
1 year old can already cooperate, after 2 years of age cooperation becomes more complex
e.g. cooperation vs competition
Study: two handles need to be pulled to make a toy dance
cooperation increases with age
Conflict
Conflict = functional
1 Y.O. conflict resolves by physical force (language is not yet developed), start of conflict over toys
2 Y.O. also use verbal means
Retaliation (revenge) in conflict occurs
Kids avoid conflict, especially hard hits
Gender differences start around age 3 boys more physical conflict
Subject of conflict changes with age
Peer Preference
Preference based on similarities:
Gender
Type of Play: kind of play infants like to engage in
Motor development: selection on the level of motor development one is in
Stability in like and dislike increases around ages 3-4 peers that are disliked or liked at a certain
age are more likely to have the same social status later
Skills underlying harmonious interaction between young peers:
Joint attention predicts TOM skills two years later
e.g. regulation of gaze, use of communicative gestures (e.g. pointing, holding up object)
Emotion regulation
Differences between adult and peer situations (infants show lower levels of affect with peers,
than with their mothers)
In particular negative reactions to momentary frustration
Fear (of peers) is harder to inhibit than anger (towards peers), so interventions focused on
anger regulation may be more successful
Inhibitory control
e.g. when meeting new acquaintances, infants must inhibit impulses to explore their peers as
they would with objects
also inhibition of seizing toys from peers, children who cannot inhibit this impulse may be
reacted to negatively by their peers
Development of personal space
Imitation
, Development of Personal Relationships
Needed for harmonious play with peers, matching a peer’s behavior is an important strategy
for interaction amongst younger toddlers
Learning tool for social skills
Causal understanding
Understanding that the other is an intentional social agent and that one’s own actions affect
others
But also understanding that others can do things by accident
underpinned by a more general comprehension of cause-and-effect relationships in the
world
Early step in the development of TOM and correlation with both aggression and prosocial
behavior
Language
Verbal ability is related to higher prosociality and lower aggression; speech is used both as a
means of expressing one’s desires and pursuing one’s aims in conflict
Related to ToM development
Peers with developmental disorder related to these skills may be at a disadvantage when it comes to
interactions with peers
Beyond the dyad
Triadic Relationships
Infancy: by nonverbal exchanges
Around 6 months: shared meaning
Around age 2: many triadic relations
Status and Dominance
The tendency to initiate conflict is a stable characteristic, but the tendency to yield to the peer
depends on the identity of the peer and their dominance/status
Clear status structures in 11-15 month olds
related to tenure, development, age
Study:
A “Top-Ranked” child uses more directing towards the “Lowest-Ranked” child.
A “Second-Ranked” child looks more at the “Top-Ranked” child.
this child looks at the dominant child to follows their way/to check if they are acting the same
Social understanding
Children achieve an understanding of other people’s desires and beliefs, and become better able to
generate solutions to interpersonal problems
Bidirectional relation social understanding may play a role in determining which children become
rejected & peer rejection may interfere with the development of social understanding
e.g. ToM skills are thought to develop through social interactions with peers
An aspect of ToM is the understanding of another person’s intentions misunderstanding of
another’s intent has been linked to increasingly serious peer problems (e.g. reactive aggression in
response to perceived provocation or frustration)
Executive function
Negative association was found between executive functioning and antisocial behavior
, Development of Personal Relationships
Lecture 1
Why study personal relationships?
Social health is as important as mental and physical health.
Loneliness = perceived lack of relationships, quality of relationships is crucial as well
Studies show that social relationships are more important in predicting mortality than e.g. smoking,
alcohol consumption.
Early Social Relationships
Classical theories
Infants (0-2 years) are not capable of true social interaction, later relationships are derived from
relationships with primary caregivers.
Peers start to matter later in development
Modern theories
Children are biologically wired to pay attention to others besides primary caregivers
The entire social system influences a child
Early peer relations can be important for development as well
Scrambled faces paradigm
Study on newborns do infants pay more attention to a human face?
More head turning when a face is shown on the board
replication is dependent on the age; younger infants (1-3 months) show more head turning than
older infants (5 months).
This may be because younger infants need this skills (being able to recognize a human face) for early
survival.
Dyadic Peer-Relationships
Contingent responses: responses that build on what the other person did (higher degree when there
are no toys that distract infants)
starts already at 6 months
Dyad differences in touching each other or toys held by their peers
Prosocial exchanges
Responses to distress
Newborns cry in response to other cries
Study on 8 months old infants (Liddle, Bradley & McGarth)
What happens when one infants starts to cry?
1. Gaze
2. Affect: facial expression
3. Physical response
4. Self-distress
Study on 2 year old infants
Asked was what one would do when someone starts crying
Responses: problem-solving, aggression, amusement
individual differences start to form
, Development of Personal Relationships
Sharing
12 M.O.: affiliative sharing a toy is brought to another person for the purpose of playing
with together, not necessarily for sharing the individual still benefits from the toy
18 M.O.: share when it is requested
From 24 M.O.: children share spontaneously, without being asked to share
sharing is predicted by sensitivity to distress
But non-sharing is very frequent as well
At 48 M.O. sharing increases further and is related to Theory of Mind
Cooperating
1 year old can already cooperate, after 2 years of age cooperation becomes more complex
e.g. cooperation vs competition
Study: two handles need to be pulled to make a toy dance
cooperation increases with age
Conflict
Conflict = functional
1 Y.O. conflict resolves by physical force (language is not yet developed), start of conflict over toys
2 Y.O. also use verbal means
Retaliation (revenge) in conflict occurs
Kids avoid conflict, especially hard hits
Gender differences start around age 3 boys more physical conflict
Subject of conflict changes with age
Peer Preference
Preference based on similarities:
Gender
Type of Play: kind of play infants like to engage in
Motor development: selection on the level of motor development one is in
Stability in like and dislike increases around ages 3-4 peers that are disliked or liked at a certain
age are more likely to have the same social status later
Skills underlying harmonious interaction between young peers:
Joint attention predicts TOM skills two years later
e.g. regulation of gaze, use of communicative gestures (e.g. pointing, holding up object)
Emotion regulation
Differences between adult and peer situations (infants show lower levels of affect with peers,
than with their mothers)
In particular negative reactions to momentary frustration
Fear (of peers) is harder to inhibit than anger (towards peers), so interventions focused on
anger regulation may be more successful
Inhibitory control
e.g. when meeting new acquaintances, infants must inhibit impulses to explore their peers as
they would with objects
also inhibition of seizing toys from peers, children who cannot inhibit this impulse may be
reacted to negatively by their peers
Development of personal space
Imitation
, Development of Personal Relationships
Needed for harmonious play with peers, matching a peer’s behavior is an important strategy
for interaction amongst younger toddlers
Learning tool for social skills
Causal understanding
Understanding that the other is an intentional social agent and that one’s own actions affect
others
But also understanding that others can do things by accident
underpinned by a more general comprehension of cause-and-effect relationships in the
world
Early step in the development of TOM and correlation with both aggression and prosocial
behavior
Language
Verbal ability is related to higher prosociality and lower aggression; speech is used both as a
means of expressing one’s desires and pursuing one’s aims in conflict
Related to ToM development
Peers with developmental disorder related to these skills may be at a disadvantage when it comes to
interactions with peers
Beyond the dyad
Triadic Relationships
Infancy: by nonverbal exchanges
Around 6 months: shared meaning
Around age 2: many triadic relations
Status and Dominance
The tendency to initiate conflict is a stable characteristic, but the tendency to yield to the peer
depends on the identity of the peer and their dominance/status
Clear status structures in 11-15 month olds
related to tenure, development, age
Study:
A “Top-Ranked” child uses more directing towards the “Lowest-Ranked” child.
A “Second-Ranked” child looks more at the “Top-Ranked” child.
this child looks at the dominant child to follows their way/to check if they are acting the same
Social understanding
Children achieve an understanding of other people’s desires and beliefs, and become better able to
generate solutions to interpersonal problems
Bidirectional relation social understanding may play a role in determining which children become
rejected & peer rejection may interfere with the development of social understanding
e.g. ToM skills are thought to develop through social interactions with peers
An aspect of ToM is the understanding of another person’s intentions misunderstanding of
another’s intent has been linked to increasingly serious peer problems (e.g. reactive aggression in
response to perceived provocation or frustration)
Executive function
Negative association was found between executive functioning and antisocial behavior
, Development of Personal Relationships
